Avon Grove School District officials concerned about impact fees

06/04/2018 12:53PM
● By Steven Hoffman

Penn
Township recently adopted an ordinance establishing a traffic impact
fee on any new commercial or residential developments or projects
that create a traffic impact within designated transportation service
areas in the township. The collection of the impact fees would allow
the township to cover expenses for any road improvements that might
be necessary as a result of the developments.

The
transportation service area maps out parts of the township where new
construction could have an impact on overall traffic patterns. The
impact fees will be calculated using the number of new trips per day
during weekday afternoon peak hours that the new development creates.

The
Avon Grove School Board recently decided to construct a new high
school on the Sunnyside Road parcel that the district owns. A new
high school will create a lot of new trips per day during weekday
afternoon peak hours—and consequently the new traffic impact fee
could have a big impact on the school district in the form of one,
large bill.

At
the May 29 Avon Grove School Board meeting, one of the issues that
school board member Jeffrey Billig highlighted in his Facilities
Committee report was the potential costs of the traffic impact fee.

Billig
noted that the township estimated the school district's obligation,
as a result of the traffic impact fee, to be nearly $800,000.

“Dialogue
will continue as to the appropriateness of that number,” Billig
said.

In
other business at the meeting, the school board adopted, by a vote of
4-3, Resolution 18-15, which states that “…Avon Grove School
District undertakes to move forward with facilities projects and
related implementation as approved by Board of School Director
resolutions on April 26, 2018 the Board hereby resolves that to the
extent any state reimbursements are received by the District through
PlanCon, or any other state-approved system of reimbursements in
support of these facilities projects, the administrative staff shall
then propose, in the corresponding budget, a tax reduction (millage
credit of equal value against the planned tax increases.”

Essentially,
since the school district is undertaking construction and renovation
projects that could cost $115 million or more, this resolution
encourages—but does not require—a future school board and the
Avon Grove administration to use the full amount of PlanCon
reimbursements to reduce the local effort to pay for the projects.

The
board was divided on the resolution—some supported it because it
sends a message to taxpayers that the board understands the enormous
investment that the community has made with the planned school
projects, while others opposed the resolution because the current
board shouldn’t be making decisions that limit the options of
future boards, and because the resolution, as written, is
aspirational—it doesn’t necessarily obligate future boards to
follow it.

School
board member Bill Wood noted that there is already a responsibility
for elected officials to keep taxes as low as possible, so the
resolution isn't necessary.

“I
don't see this resolution having much of an effect,” Wood said.
“Any future board can still raise to the Act 1 Index limit,
regardless of this resolution.”

Daniel
Carsley, the school district's director of business administration
pointed out that the PlanCon process is set up to reduce the local
effort that is needed to build or renovate school buildings, so from
his perspective it might be redundant to adopt the resolution.

School
board member John Auerbach said that he favored the resolution
because it makes it clear that, at a future time when revenues come
in to the school district through the PlanCon process, those revenues
would “only be dedicated to offsetting the tax burden” on
residents.

“I
propose that we actually commit to doing that versus simply asking
for a budget variation that can and almost certainly would be ignored
in favor of spending the additional revenue on something else,”
Auerbach said.

Auerbach
offered an amendment to the resolution adding a statement at the end
that would read, “The board further resolves that the recommended
tax credit is accepted as part of the budget process.” The board
voted against the amendment, 4-3. But when the board voted on the
original resolution, it was approved, 4-3.

Billig
voted in favor of the resolution, he said, because he viewed it as an
aspirational statement—that the district would, in fact, want to be
in a financial position where it could take the full amount of the
reimbursements for the projects and use them in such a way that taxes
would not need to be increased to the Act 1 Index limit.

There
were two special presentations during the meeting: One highlighted
the achievement of Avon Grove Intermediate School sixth-grader Ella
Bartnick, who was recognized for winning the Chester County
Intermediate Unit's third annual shoe design contest. The contest was
part of the Chester County Intermediate Unit's months-long campaign
to increase awareness and acceptance of people with all abilities.
Another presentation featured a video showcasing a few of Avon Grove
High School's top student-athletes. The video, which was prepared by
students in the high school, included interviews with a few of the
athletes who talked about the opportunities that they had while at
Avon Grove.

The
school board will meet again on Thursday, June 7 when it is expected
to finalize the budget. In June, the school board will also hold a
series of meetings to interview construction management firms and
architectural firms for work on the new high school project.